10 Best Christmas Songs for Atheists

What do you do if you're an atheist who likes Christmas carols?

It's widely assumed that atheists, by definition, hate Christmas. And it's an assumption I'm baffled by. I like Christmas. Lots of atheists I know like Christmas. Heck, even Richard Dawkins likes Christmas. Plenty of atheists recognize the need for rituals that strengthen social bonds and mark the passing of the seasons. Especially when the season in question is dark and wet and freezing cold. Add in a culturally- sanctioned excuse to spend a month of Saturdays eating, drinking, flirting, and showing off our most festive shoes, and we're totally there. And we find our own ways to adapt/ create/ subvert the holiday traditions to our own godless ends.

Sure, most of us would like for our governments to not be sponsoring religious displays at the holidays. Or any other time. What with the whole "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" thing. And some of us do rather resent the cultural hegemony of one particular religious tradition being crammed down everybody's throat, in a grotesque, mutant mating of homogenized consumerism and saccharine piety. But it's not like all atheists are Grinchy McScrooges. Many of us are very fond of Christmas. Some atheists even like Christmas carols. I'm one of them.

It is, however, definitely the case that, since I've become an atheist activist, my pleasure in many Christmas carols has been somewhat diminished. It's harder for me to sing out lustily about angels and magic stars and the miracle of the virgin birth, without rolling my eyes just a little. And I do notice the more screwed-up content of many Christmas songs more than I used to: the guilty self-loathing, the fixation on the blood sacrifice, the not- so- subtle anti-Semitism. I'm content to sing most of these songs anyway (except "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," which always makes me cringe). But for some time now, I've been on the lookout for Christmas songs that I can sing entirely happily, without getting into annoying theological debates in my head.

So, with the help of my Facebook friends, I've compiled a list of Christmas songs that atheists can love unreservedly.

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Thus begins my latest piece on AlterNet, 10 Best Christmas Songs for Atheists. To see my list of cool Christmas songs that even a hard-line atheist could love -- and my reasons for which songs did and didn't make the cut -- read the rest of the piece. Enjoy!

Comments

[Ruth Walker]

I smile when thinking about whether I agree with the words after reading several years ago about atheist David Randolph, who directed Handel’s Messiah more times than anyone else (including at Carnegie Hall). He said he refused to let words get in the way of good music! He died last May at the age of 95.

http://www.artistsinternational.com/david_randolph.html

How he justified it with his atheism is explained here:

http://ffrf.org/publications/freethought-today/articles/in-memoriam-david-randolph-1914-2010/

[Cea]

Love your article. I'm pagan so finding non-Christian carols is hard to do. A lot of yours are on my list for the same reasons. Try the Pink Martini holiday CD for a very eclectic mix. My favorite is a New Years song in Chinese and, they have Carol of the Bells in Ukrainian.
Enjoy the holidays and thanks for a fun article.

[Athyco]

One of my favorites is "It Feels Like Christmas" from The Muppet's Christmas Carol.

[Cath the Canberra Cook]

Well, I'm not crazy about this list, I like the old tunes better. But I'm something of a music geek, a chorister, and also I like the fun dark stuff. Myrrh is mine, and all that blood imagery. And Gloria in Excelsis Deo in 4 part harmony with descants... But didn't you have a post on enjoying this last year, Greta? Have you changed your mind?

I also like the cutesy medieval ones in which the story is morphing into folk tale, with all the cliched tropes. The cherry tree carol, and Great King Herod's cock! And then there was this one otherwise boring song I did this year that had a lot of SM-like imagery, with gazing rapturously on his wounds and stuff. O Come Quickly! *snicker*

[Ben]

Ugh. A worthy post, but I fear that by ruling out all music with reference to Christ you've also ruled out all music written by trained professionals. The list you're left with consists of songs that make my skin crawl because they are an offense to the notion of "music".

Yes, I'm a music snob, obviously. And a musician, albeit an amateur.

I'm an atheist and always have been, but one of my all-time favourite pieces is Bach's St. Matthew Passion. I even learned some Christianity (not to mention some German) so I could understand the piece a little better. Now I know why it's usually played at Easter, but that doesn't diminish my appreciation of the music.

You have a lovely article called "Trekkie Religion and Secular Judaism". It seems that this article would be a great place to provide context and a strong motive for secular Christianity (er, anti-semitism is a noble part of our cultural heritage???)? At least it would leave some pieces written by actual composers in your ok-list.

One more thought: would making sure to sing plenty of songs from other religions' solstice festivals take the curse off the mention of Jesus? Most everyone has a solstice festival of some sort. Of course, I'm not convinced that any non-Christian culture has ever achieved musical greatness ;)

Last idea: it would be fun to write a "Christmas carol" about the facts--the doubt about Christ's existence, the knowledge that he was definitely not born in December, the history of atrocities and lies and usurpings of other religions' tropes--in Latin or Hebrew or something, and set it to a really beautiful and memorable tune.